Masters of DIsease and their own musical fate. Submitted on: 2008-08-21
Darkane never displease me, even with a mediocre album like Expanding Senses, simply because they always do somethign different. So many freakin bands today want to just play the same old thing and, usually, I don't mind this, but if the band has no significant factor in the music that makes them stand apart then I find it hard to care at all. This band is unique in every way, from the vocalist who uses a style unlike any other(not one I particularly love, but it works mostly) to a drummer we all know and love for his completelly offbeat drum riffage and cymbal-clutch prowess to a guitarist as skilled as almost any other person more widelly known or loved. Another reviewer hit dead on when he said its so hard to place Darkane in a particular genre. I consider them melodic death only because thats where they began way back on the war label and on my favirote album by them to this day, Rusted Angel, but that doesn't do them justice, they are so much more.
Darkane represents melodic death embedded within a thrash outer shell, tinged with touches of industrial, death, and many other genre's. This album in particular has some beautiful acoustic touches not seen in this band previously, showing that they don't just do what others would, they just play what they want, where they want. It is never a huge clop of crap like most technical/grindcore bands out there, however, and always suits its own purpose. The music is always focused and the trajectory is always fluid, thansk mostly in part to the drummer, Peter Wildeor. He is perhaps much more underrated than he should be only because many don't know him and he isn't as straightforward as a drumming legend like Mike Portney, but he is nearly as skilled. He plays in fusion bands, as well as other metal bands ranging from thrash to power metal, so his style is wide and varied, but never cluttered or non-sensical.
As far as Layer of Lies is concerned, it is my next favirote Darkane album after Rusted Angel. This album has so many things to offer so many metal fans that it won't fail to impress most and it should show fans a new direction for melodic death. Melodic death is no longer the "Gothenburg Sound" that it once manifested as, it is now a melding of styles and sounds that more aptly round out the musical landscape. At least thats what Darkane would appear to be saying with this awesome and totally metallic album \m/
Ahhh, this is nice... Submitted on: 2006-04-30
This cd right here is something that you should buy. Ive just got into metal, but i have noticed that it all usually sounds the same.. Theres something to this though.. I enjoy Strapping young lad, and the dudes voice kinda reminds me of that. Good stuff...
Oh, and the cd case kicks ass as well.
Believe it or Not! More good Melo-Death from Sweden! (4.25 Stars) Submitted on: 2006-03-29
DARKANE - Layer of Lies
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Well I should start by saying this is my first intro to Darkane... But I will definitely be checking out there back catalogue in the future. That being said... lets move on to Layer of Lies.
After a brief intro the albums kicks into the Secondary Effects which is a superb collaboration of tight thrash riffs, technical madness (even some off tempo shifts), and catchy choruses thrown in for good measure. This pretty much sets the stage for the rest of the album... Even though most songs follow a similar format of sound and structure (Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge etc...) the songs do NOT get repetitive or jumbled together. In fact, with each listen this album continues to grow on me.
Now as some other reviewers have said they have some noticeable influences:
They borrow heavy from the melodic side of the great, Strapping Young Lad, Guitar-wise it sounds like many of the traditional Swedish greats. (In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, At the Gates...) and they also blend in some odd-time heavy madness from time to time ala-Meshuggah. Yet despite what `Revolver' Magazine says this is by no means a clone of any of those bands.
Plain and Simple this album rocks... Sure it's nothing `Breakthrough' but what's wrong with just rocking out to some fine Melodic Metal?
Favorite Songs: Organic Canvas, Secondary Effects, The Creation Insane and Layers of Lies.
-4.25 Stars
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Darkane is back on top with a vengeance. Submitted on: 2006-03-24
For my money, Darkane is the best euro-thrash out there. There was a time when the Gothenburg thrash scene dominated European melodic thrash, from At The Gates to In Flames and Dark Tranquillity. Of course we still have notable artists like The Haunted and Nightrage (both of whom can trace their lineages to At The Gates), but for the most part the creative spark that produced some of the most advanced and creative thrash bands around has all but died. In Flames play a corrupted brand of `thrash' heavily influenced by nu-metal, and while Dark Tranquillity proved their still worth a damn with `Character,' its quite clear that the spark of genius once displayed by Sweden's international thrashers has seen its day come and go. But wait....there's hope.
Darkane missed by a few years the apex of Sweden's kingdom of thrash (their phenomenal `Rusted Angel' came out in 1998. At The Gates broke up in 1995), but on their debut release they injected a fresh dose of creativity and daring into a genre that seemed ready to expire. After repeatedly pushing the boundaries of their style on `Insanity' and `Expanding Senses,' which over all I was disappointed with, Darkane is back again, ready to reclaim the crown. `Layers of Lies' isn't a return to form. It's a shattering of form. The aggressive tempos and spine-tingling guitar work are here with a ferocity unheard since `Rusted Angel', but the band has upped the ante and pushed their musicianship to new heights. The intricacies of the guitars and the rhythmic gymnastics pulled off by Peter Wildoer, probably metal's most unique drummer, help to make this one of the most refreshing metal releases I've heard in a long time. But more than the superb musicianship, what impresses me most about Darkane is their song writing ability. When broken down to its simplest parts, these guys write fairly simple songs (intro, verse, chorus, verse, solo break, chorus). The songs are structured in a way that's very approachable, allowing the band to focus on writing great riffs while keeping to a minimum the mind-numbingly scattered song structures of many extreme music groups.
The vocals deserve special mentioning. To be sure, there's plenty of shrieking, like a hell-bound banshee, but the chorus's on this album are absolutely epic, and catchy to boot. It's not uncommon for a song to build to a phenomenal climax aided by well-executed singing that pushes the intensity to the next level. At first it might seem that the recording is thin, but everything is crystal clear and eventually you discover that the production does exactly what is needed to unleash the fury of this album. If you enjoyed `Rusted Angel', or thought, like me, that is was one of the best thrash releases ever (no hyperbole), then you would be doing yourself a favor by checking out `Layer of Lies'. It will NOT disappoint.
Blistering thrash metal Submitted on: 2005-12-11
Darkane's fourth album Layers of Lies is their return to form release, in many ways akin to their debut album Rusted Angel, which is not only their heaviest but also most technical work. Compared to the more melodic Expanding Senses, the new album is a lot more aggressive and intricate in its song arrangements and production. Quite possibly their best work sonically, the sound is massive, the guitar tones are thick and heavy, the drums are perfectly balanced, and the vocal harmonies are gold. Andreas Sydow has a knack for writing some of the catchiest vocal lines within the Swedish thrash/death genre, as he opts for excellent aggressive thrash vocals during the verses and suddenly moves into huge multi-track harmonies in the choruses. In the beginning of "Organic Canvas", he sings very aggressively, almost in an 80's thrash tone, while complex guitar riffs and hyper-fast drums wrap themselves around his demonic tone, but as the main chorus kicks in, we're left alone with a massive wall of sound harmony where his voice is recorded twice brilliantly layered on top of the ominous guitar and keyboard soundscape. The song concludes with an incredible guitar solo. You'd expect Christofer Malmstrom to shred his heart out after such a complex piece, but on the contrary, he plays delicately melodic yet still there is an undeniable aggression in his phrasing. Awesome lead tone too.
Darkane displays sheer brutality in the verse sections of the songs a la Strapping Young Lad meets Biomechanical meets Meshuggah, and abruptly crashes into soaring melodies that constantly shift between brutal screams and gripping harmonies. The moody intro of "Fading Dimensions" shows no sign of what's yet to come or may even mislead the listener. Suddenly epic chunks of guitar riffs begin to build and eventually spiral into death-inflected thrash metal whilst Sydow's vocals during the chorus crash over like a tidal wave. I don't think I've ever heard another band that can create this kind of tension except Devin Townsend's Strapping Young Lad. Also, the guitar work is impeccable here. Malmstrom employs exotic scales on several tunes on this disc, experimenting with whimsical chord progressions and odd guitar tunings. Much like its predecessor, the title track kicks in with dark acoustic arpeggios before diving headlong into the most memorable Darkane chorus to date, sung entirely in clean vocals. The song is punctuated with frequent shifts in time signatures, a full drum sound and deeply tortured screams. There is more exotic guitar stuff on "Godforsaken Universe" and "Vision of Degradation", which are interspersed with a brief instrumental track titled "Klastraphobic Hibernation". The dual lead guitars on "Vision of Degradation" once again betray Darkane's thrash metal roots, as Malmstrom's textural, almost dreamlike playing underlies his love for smooth, melodic songwriting. The following tracks are arguably less intense, or perhaps not as good as the first eight, but still, there's much to be heard on the industrial number "Contaminated", the progressive instrumental "Maelstrom Crises" (with a killer shred solo at the end), and the cold and mechanical "Decadent Messiah", which may be the most complex track on the album. Layers of Lies is sealed with "The Creation Insane", which basically combines Darkane's strongest aspects from precise guitar syncopatiton to blistering drumming and a powerful vocal performance and melts them all into a more old-school type of thrash metal context.
Layers of Lies is an excellent release. Someone called this futuristic thrash. I love that description. This is one of Darkane's finest albums.
Masters of DIsease and their own musical fate.
Ahhh, this is nice...